The ugly side of enlargement

Not so long ago, covering the European Union involved focusing on a small cast of "big beasts" France, Germany, the European Commission and Britain, more or less.

MEPs protestÂ during a visit to the parliament by France's far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen

Other countries might leap to prominence on certain issues fish, olives, or whatever, but most of the time, it was firmly a Western European game.

Not any more. Just take a nasty little incident that took place in the European Parliament this week, involving a far right Bulgarian politician, and a Hungarian colleague, of Roma ancestry.

From a Western European perspective, the whole story could not have felt more alien, with its whiffs of ancient enmities, and lives lived in wretched poverty. But it's allÂ Europe now, as the EU grows to a vast sprawl of 25 nations, soon to be 27.

The story itself felt too sleazy and small scale to report in the newspaper it amounted, at base, to tasteless behaviour by a young politician, from a thuggish small party. But before I could take that decision, I found myself having to do some swift research on Bulgarian fringe politics, and the Hungarian delegation to the European Parliament. All in all, an interesting lesson.

The story involved a 23 year old Bulgarian MP, Dimitar Stoyanov, who is currently an "observer" at the European Parliament, but who will become an MEP next January, after his country enters the EU. Stoyanov is an MP from the ultra-nationalist Ataka party, whose leader routinely launches aggressive broadsides against Turks, Roma and other minorities, winning the party 10 per cent of the vote in Bulgaria's 2005 general elections.

Stoyanov saw fit to mock MEPs for nominating a Hungarian Roma centre-right MEP, Livia Jaroka, for a parliamentarians' prize. To be specific, he sent an email to all MEPs, stating: "In my country there are tens of thousands gypsy girls way more beautiful than this honorable one.

"In fact if you're in the right place on the right time you even can buy one (around 12-13 years old) to be your loving wife. The best of them are very expensive – up to 5 000 euros a piece, wow!" he went on.

Like I said, sleazy, and not worth reporting in a British newspaper. But in some corners of the EU, it was big news, understandably. The Bulgarian prime minister and foreign minister condemned Stoyanov yesterday, as did the parliamentary spokesman.

The German Christian Democrat who heads the centre right EPP group in the European Parliament, Hans-GertÂ Poettering, publicly suggested Bulgarian authorities should withdraw Mr Stoyanov from the parliament "as there is no place for him among European politicians."

Enough publicity for Stoyanov. But he offered me, at least, a fresh reminder that covering the EU is getting much more complicated.